Coffee May Be a Life Saver

CNN aired a much talked about report suggesting coffee may reduce the risk of death.

Researchers tracked 200,000 women and 50,000 men for two decades. Eliminating those who smoked revealed that coffee drinkers who consumed three to five cups daily had 15-20% lower death rates.

“The lower risk of mortality is consistent with our hypothesis that coffee consumption could be good for you (because) we have published papers showing that coffee consumption is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes and (heart) disease,” said Ming Ding, a doctoral student in the Harvard School of Public Health department of nutrition.

The report found those who drank 1-3 cups daily had 6-8% lower risk of dying than noncoffee drinkers. Ding and her colleagues found that coffee drinkers were about 10% less likely to die of heart disease. They were also between 9% and 37% less likely to die of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and dementia.